I know several diseases have one and only one vector.
Other diseases include several vectors in a series (...maybe micecats-->humans). And I know a single organism (flea) can carry several diseases (although..I am not completely sure if it is a specific genus or not).
But I do not know if ...let's say a virus X can be transmitted by flies and cockroaches (not in a series but in parallel) to a human. (my guess is that it should be harder for a micro-organism to infect two or more hosts ...rather than just one...right? Although there's the advantage of having more chances of survival just by including more hosts.)
I believe yes !! whichever life form can support the growth of virus/microorganisms. Take the example of rabies it can be transmitted through dogs, cats, bats, skunks, raccoon etc. and no its not harder for to infect two hosts because their replication is so rapid once they find the suitable host, they hijack the host cell machinery to do their work and subsequently infecting others.
Hi,
This is absolutely very crucial topic. Because:
Vector-borne diseases account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases, causing more than 1 million deaths annually.
More than 2.5 billion people in over 100 countries are at risk of contracting dengue alone.
Malaria causes more than 400 000 deaths every year globally, most of them children under 5 years of age.
Other diseases such as Chagas disease, leishmaniasis and schistosomiasis affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
Many of these diseases are preventable through informed protective measures and control of "pathogen carrying vectors".
As Rajesh correctly said, the answer to your question is affirmative.
Hi,
Sure the awnser is yes. Take the example of ticks that can transmit the highest variety of pathogens: different species and sometimes different genus can transmit the same pathogen. Other example is Bartonella henselae that might be transmitted both by fleas and ticks.
Best
Sarah
yes, for example, mosquitoes are vectors for several diseases, most notably, malaria.
Izunna ! the example of mosquitoes given by you, I am afraid is not fully correct. There are 3540 species of mosquitoes recorded wordwide under 112 genera. Malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes belonging to genus Anopheles and not all species of genus Anopheles are malaria vectors.
The accumulation of pathogen may changing in the characteristic infectivity.
Under the term "vector" should only be understood hematophagous invertebrate animals, not vertebrate hosts!
There are surprisingly few cases when a pathogenic agent is transmissible by different groups of vectors: Rift Valley fever virus: mosquitoes, biting midges, ixodid ticks; Vesicular stomatitis complex viruses: mosquitoes, sandflies, biting midges, tabanids, blackflies; Francisella tularensis: ixodid ticks, tabanids (Chrysops spp.).
For details, see e.g. "Microbial Zoonoses and Sapronoses" (by Z. Hubalek, I. Rudolf), Spinger, Dordrecht-Heidelberg-London-New York, 2011. 457 pp. ISBN 978-90-481-9656-2.
If one considers paratenic hosts (no development as such of the contaminating organism in or on the host), then there can be more than one kind of transport host for the same pathogen. You might not have been thinking of passive transport but you mentioned flies and cockroaches. Both can carry coccidian oocysts (e.g. Toxoplasma and Sarcocystis). I have published on the subject.
Hi Francisco,
Of course, the same pathogen can be transmitted by several species of vectors. With all the development of new technologies for the identification of pathogens in vectors and reservoirs. We already talk about multi-vectors and multi-reservoirs.
Regards
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Medicine
- Disease
- Infectious Diseases